Garden & Yard Update......Still Producing!

Even though it's a week into October with our unseasonably warm weather so far this Fall, my garden is still in production mode.
The plants are looking long in the tooth now and things are winding down but I've still got tomatoes growing out there......

You can see some pops of red and there are quite a few green fruits still on the plants.

Next week won't climb out of the 60's and Monday night we will be flirting with temps in the 30's so I think we'll be taking down the netting and pulling up the plants on Sunday.  I'll either pick all the maters or hang the plants upside down on our front porch until the last of the green ones ripen.

I made my first fried green tomatoes this past week and for some reason they just didn't seem sweet enough.  Maybe it's the variety of tomatoes I grew or something in the soil but they just aren't that awesome to be prepared that way.  

I could always buy more peppers and use the green maters left in a small batch of my pepper relish but I don't think I am up to that ordeal again.  Pickled green tomatoes instead?......maybe.  Or I can just wait them out until they turn red and eat them fresh.
So many decisions........lolz

The progression of tomato color. (And no, that Keurig on the counter does NOT belong to me!)


Anyway, since my last update on September 22nd I've picked 46.40 more ounces(2.9 lbs.)of tomatoes for use in meals here.
This brings my Total Harvest to 682.80 ounces or 42.675 pounds of produce for 2016.

Not bad for a haphazard effort and we've still got tomatoes left to pick and use.

As for my Morning Glories..........

Still blooming as of this morning but the plants are looking a bit rattier.  I'd give them another week and they'll be dying back and by US Thanksgiving I'll be able to harvest a butt ton of seed pods.
Let me know if you want some free morning glory seeds.  8-)

And this is laying in the backyard too since Sunday evening, when some moderate wind passed through the area........

A view from an upstairs window before Hubs moved if off of our fire ring.....

That baby's 20+ feet long and had we been having a fire that night it might have fallen on us!

We need to go out this weekend and inspect all our trees and see if there are any other dead branches that we need to pay someone to have taken down before Winter sets in.
Kaching goes the money out my wallet again........sigh

In other yard news, these flowers/plants I planted in the front flower bed the last Summer before the current one reseeded themselves and we still have colorful stuff going on there.

I don't know what they are called but if you don't disturb/pull out the dead plants in the Fall and don't remulch the following growing season they will reseed.
Yes, we never got around to remulching and making the flower bed pretty this growing season.  Heck I stopped weeding it by the end of July so it's just a hot mess.
Hey, don't judge.......

Another free plant next to the retaining wall.

So what's happening in your yard/garden now?

Sluggy

My Food Spending/Tracking Method

Reader Linda asked earlier this week in a comment my method of keeping track of my food budget spending so I am here to reveal my secrets.
Secrets, riiiiiight!

Nothing hi-tech here as you can see.
Here is my secret weapon......

A good old notebook.
It sits on the bookshelf by my desk.

When I get home from the store my receipt(s) go into this notebook.........

I put all grocery/food/toiletries spending receipts in the front cover of said notebook.
When a new month rolls around and I get receipts, those receipts go into the back cover, and at some point in that next month, I purge the last month's receipts out of the front cover when I am done calculating or sending for refunds/rebates in which I need those ones.
And the process starts all over again.

The secret is to have a place to gather all your shopping receipts so you don't misplace them.  You aren't always going to have the time to immediately record your receipts(or the energy after putting all your spoils away).  When you can't get to it right away, have the receipts somewhere handy you can access them when you do have the time to record them.

When you are ready to record your spending, pull out your receipt(s) and do so.
I use a new page each month(and any overflow if I have a lot of shopping trips that month go onto the facing page.
I put the month at the top of the page, then list the date of each trip and which store I shopped at.
Across the page goes my OOP spending, the reg. retail value of that trip, how much $ was saved and then if I am not rushed for time(and feel like it)I calculate out the percentage of savings for the trip.
The only other tools you need are a pen or pencil and a calculator. 8-)

At the end of a week I will add up the columns to get a weekly Total of my spending/savings.  Then(if it isn't the first week)I pull forward the spending total to do a Month To Date entry so I can keep an eye on how much has been spent so far that month and how much I have left in the budget.

By the end of the month there is a lot of writing on those pages as you can see from the photo of the September 2016 pages.

When the month has finished I add up all my individual stores entries and get subtotals of how much was spent/saved/% at each store and then what was spent/save/% overall for the month.
From this information I can do my monthly spending total post as well as update my Food/Toiletries webpage for the year(accessed from the top tab on the site).

It's important to know how much you spend, period.  Sure, not everyone wants this much detail so do what works for you.

It's not rocket science.  Just get a system down that works for you and track that spending!

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Trip.....Cheap M&M's and Free Movie Code

Ok, so I didn't need to go to Rite-Aid this week but I went and bought this stuff here........

4 x M&M's on sale $3 each=$12.00
I used 2 x $1.50/2 IPQs(coupons dotcom)which brought the total to $9.00
I used $9 in Plenti Points to pay and earned $6 in new Plenti Points($3 wyb $10 on select Food Items Deals and $3 wyb $10 on select  Halloween Candy Items Deal).
The M&M's double dip for two different deals this week.

I also made sure to grab bags with the FREE MOVIE OFFER packaging.

After submitting a photo of the receipt I'll be sent a movie code to redeem for 1 Movie Ticket(value up to $12).

So I got 4 bags of M&M's and a movie ticket for spending down $3 in Plenti Points(each item received "cost" me .60¢ in points used).

The M&M's will go into cooking baking or gifting for the Holidays and the Movie Ticket will go into the Christmas stash.  8-)

I might go back and buy another 3 bags of candy, use another $1.50/2, paying $7.50 in Plenti points and earning another $6 in new Points for hitting at least $10 spent again on both the Food and Halloween Deals.($9 more spent plus my $2 carried over from my last purchase gets me over $10 again.)

Now it's like paying .56¢ for each of the 8 items received(7 candy, 1 movie).

Unfortunately there is a limit of 1 free Movie Offer per household so I can't get another movie ticket if I do this Deal again.

So far the regular, peanut and peanut butter M&M's are reported working for both the $3 Food and $3 Halloween Deals and double dip for Plenti points.

So I'll buy 7 bags total of M&M's for $21.
Use 3 x $1.50/2 M&M's IPQ.
$21-$4.50=$16.50
Get back $12 in new Plenti Points $16.50-$12.00=$4.50 OOP after points earned.

$4.50 for 7 bags of candy and 1 movie ticket.
An awesome deal if you can use this stuff.

Sluggy

Weis(PMITA)Markets Trip Yesterday

I found 2 Instant Discount Sticker meats+ 3 great deals at Weis yesterday.......

* The andouille sausage is reg. $6 and had a $3 off sticker on it....half price meat!

* The kielbasa sausage(regularly $4.49)was on sale for $3.50 ea. and had $2 off stickers on them.....$1.50 each or 66% off meat!

* The ground turkey(regularly $3.99)was on sale for $3.39 lb. and I had a $1/1 lb. Weis Q that they sent me......$2.39 or 40% off meat!

* The Perdue breaded cutlets(regularly $4)were on sale for $2(1/2 price already)and I had 2 x $1/25/2 IPQs......$1.375 a package or 65% off meat!

* The store made panko breaded pork tenderloins(regularly $5.88 lb.)were on sale for $2.98 lb......49% off meat!

$16.93 for $40.97 worth of reg. retail meat for a 58% savings rate on the meat.

This shop was rounded out with 3 x 1/2 price Bakery Items, a FREE gallon of milk(from the cereal I bought last week), a jug of veggie oil($1.77 sale price-cheaper than their value brand reg. price), a cucumber(.50¢ off), and a double brick of cream cheese(reg. $4.79)for $1.97 after sale and Q.

I elected to use some gas points toward a 5% discount, lowering this shop another $1.18, which all-in cost me $25.60 out the door.
Savings rate of 60% overall.
Not bad......

Sluggy

Money Tips & Tricks to Save for Christmas Spending

First off Christmas comes around every single year.  It's not a surprise nor an emergency so why ignore it until the month of December and then it's panic time?  Or worse still, pay for it all on credit cards and then spend the first three months of next year(or longer!!)paying it off.

Develop some tricks or strategies that help you cope with all that cash leaving your wallet at the Holidays.  Because you KNOW it is going to happen so don't pretend it won't.

Find little ways to soften that blow to your cash reserves in December by making yourself save for Christmas all year long.

* Start a Christmas club.
* Join one of those online sites where you do mindless time wasters to earn points you can cash in for gift cards. If you have time on your hands and you're online anyway, so why not if you can stand it.
* Put X$ out of every paycheck aside into an account or a jar or wherever you won't touch it until it's time to buy Holiday frippery/gifts/foods.  Same idea as paying yourself first....put something away for yourself, then fund your Christmas kitty before spending down your monthly income.
* If you earn a gift card for buying/doing something(buying items at Target/transferring a prescription/etc.)put those away to use at the Holidays.
* Stop yourself from indulging in some weekly/monthly "want" once a week/month and put the cash you would have spent into a Xmas fund. (ie-1 less coffee or treat out per week, 1 less meal out per month, 1 less magazine/toy/shoe/purse per month, etc.)
* Direct all your accumulated pocket change into a coffee can to cash in for Holiday spending.
* If you have a rewards credit card, wait until the Holidays and cash in your points toward cash rebates, gift items and/or gift cards.
* When you 'save' by using coupons/sales at the grocery/drug stores, actually take that amount 'saved' in dollars and stuff it into an envelope earmarked to spend at Christmas.

There are so many painless money tricks you can play all year that allow you to hoard a little pile of cash/gifts away for the Holidays.  Just tuck it away as you go through the year and then haul it out in November/December when you are ready to start dealing with how to dole it all out.

One trick is to search out/send away for freebies that you can use for gifts.  I am by no means a "dedicated Freebie searcher outer".  I see an offer for something in passing or get a coupon at the store to try something new for free, sure, I'll exert the little effort required to get it.  Even not trying very hard it's possible to accumulate a decent pile of free stuff.

Here are the items I've gotten for free in the last few months.  If you recall I am putting freebies, when appropriate, away for Christmas gifting.

Besides the $70 in free gift cards at Target for doing Deals and the Musselman's Promo, I cashed in credit card points earlier this Summer for more gift cards.  $350 in gift cards were procured with $150 of them being earmarked for Christmas gifts.(The other $200 procured was for Lowe's cards for home maintenance supplies.)

World Market sent me a $10 off any purchase of $10 or more coupon last month.  Though we don't have a World Market here locally(and I wouldn't redeem this online and pay postage on having items shipped to me), luckily the coupon arrived right before we went to the family reunion in Virginia.
There is a World Market near my son's apartment in Fredericksburg so I was able to go get $10 in free stuff....yay me!

I got more than these two items(jars of olives)but these are the items gotten for free that went into the Xmas stash-a canister of waffle mix and single use bottles of hot sauce.
Of course, Hubs bought beer at World Market so that trip actually cost me money! lolz

I also got that free protein bar this Summer at Weis and a large pack of Puffs tissues.

Going into the third quarter of 2016 here are all the freebies I have in my Christmas Stash to date......

hot sauce-World Market
waffle mix-World Market
2 x Axe gift sets-Rite-Aid
Axe deodorant-Walmart full sized sample
2 x large bottles Suave shampoo-Rite-Aid
3 x Vaseline cocoa butter lotion-Rite-Aid
2 x Andes peppermint mints-Rite-Aid
bar of goat soap-Price Chopper
protein bar-Weis
Puffs tissue pack-Weis
12 packs of gum-Weis
7 lip balms-Rite-Aid
6 packs of mints-Rite-Aid
4 sets of ear buds-Rite-Aid
$10 Best Buy gift card-Musselman's promo
$50 Barnes & Noble gift card-c/c points
$60 Target gift cards(4 x $10, 4 x $5)-Target promos
2 x $50 Target gift cards-c/c points

In cash assets I have-

Sealed Pot/rolled coins stash of $80
SavingStar rebates of $90.77
Ibotta rebates of $5.50(can't cash out until it hits $20)
Checkout 51 rebates of $29.35
Items Sold on FB Tag Sale-$93
Rite-Aid Cash-$42(This was cash returned to me for coupons that were forgotten or didn't deduct during a transaction.)

I usually throw the SavingStar rebates into my food spending budget to offset that yearly total(since the rebates are due to food/toiletries I bought during the year).
This will be the first year I've gotten cash back for Checkout 51 so that's another bit of cash to throw at the food spending as well.

Rolled coins/sealed pot get put with the Christmas funds.
But I am unsure where to direct the cash from the Facebook local sales-into Xmas monies or put toward Food Budget?  What do you think I should do with this cash?

I am also not sure what to do with the Rite-Aid cash I received when transactions were messed up.  I have been holding that in my wallet to use at Rite-Aid if I ever needed it/ran out of Plenti points but it doesn't seem like that will ever happen. lolz
Should I throw that $42 into the Xmas fund or use it to offset the Food spending?
What say you on that one?

Cash saved for Xmas.....$80.00
Gift Cards saved for Xmas....$220.00
List of freebie items for Xmas

Cash saved for Food Budget......$120.12
Weis gift cards for Food Budget.....$25.00* a free $20 gc for Rx transfer and $5 for a Deal that didn't print this Summer

Plus that $42 in RA cash and $93 in F/B sales site cash I don't know where to direct.

Things are shaping up to be decent for my freebie stash going into Christmas 2016.

How about you?
What are your tricks and techniques for saving for Holidays spending?
How is your stash coming along?

Sluggy